英语virtual reality课文翻译

太长了，以下只是原文的八分之一：
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Virtual Reality
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Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special or stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Users can interact with a virtual environment or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and omnidirectional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication bandwidth. However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor, imaging and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time.

Virtual Reality is often used to describe a wide variety of applications, commonly associated with its immersive, highly visual, 3D environments. The development of CAD software, graphics hardware acceleration, head mounted displays, database gloves and miniaturization have helped popularize the notion. In the book The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, Michael Heim identifies seven different concepts of Virtual Reality: simulation, interaction, artificiality, immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication. The definition still has a certain futuristic romanticism attached. People often identify VR with Head Mounted Displays, Data Suits and Steven King's The Lawnmower Man.

Terminology

The term artificial reality, coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the 1970s but the origin of the term virtual reality is uncertain. It has been credited to The Judas Mandala, a 1982 science fiction novel by Damien Broderick, where the context of use is somewhat different from that defined above. The earliest use cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is in a 1987 article entitled "Virtual reality", but the article is not about VR technology. The VR developer Jaron Lanier claims that he coined the term. The concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as Brainstorm and The Lawnmower Man (and others mentioned below), and the VR research boom of the 1990s was motivated in part by the non-fiction book Virtual Reality by Howard Rheingold. The book served to demystify the subject, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and enthusiasts, with an impact similar to what his book The Virtual Community had on virtual community research lines closely related to VR. Multimedia: from Wagner to Virtual Reality, edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan and first published in 2001, explores the term and its history from an avant-garde perspective.

Timeline

Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theatre" that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He built a prototype of his vision dubbed the Sensorama in 1962, along with five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, and touch). Predating digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical device, which reportedly still functions today. In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his student Bob Sproull, created what is widely considered to be the first virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) head mounted display (HMD) system. It was primitive both in terms of user interface and realism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling, and the graphics comprising the virtual environment were simple wireframe model rooms. The formidable appearance of the device inspired its name, The Sword of Damocles. Also notable among the earlier hypermedia and virtual reality systems was the Aspen Movie Map, which was created at MIT in 1977. The program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons. The first two were based on photographs — the researchers actually photographed every possible movement through the city's street grid in both seasons — and the third was a basic 3-D model of the city. In the late 1980s the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research (from "Virtual Programming Languages") in 1985, which developed and built some of the seminal "goggles n' gloves" systems of that decade.

Future

It is unclear exactly where the future of virtual reality is heading. In the short run, the graphics displayed in the HMD will soon reach a point of near realism. The audio capabilities will move into a new realm of three dimensional sound. This refers to the addition of sound channels both above and below the individual or a Holophony approach.....
虚拟现实(VR)是一门技术,该技术允许使用者用计算机模拟环境相互作用,无论是一个真实或想象一个。目前大多数虚拟环境根本上就是虚拟体验,要么显示在计算机屏幕上或通过特殊或立体感显示,只是某些模拟包括另外的感觉信息,例如声音通过扬声器或耳机。一些先进、haptic系统现在还包括触觉信息,通常被认为是力反馈,在医疗和游戏应用。用户也可以与虚拟的环境或虚拟神器(VA)要么就是通过使用标准的输入设备,如键盘和鼠标,或通过多通道的装置,像是一个有线手套、Polhemus繁荣全方位的膀臂、和跑步机。模拟环境可以类似真实世界,例如,模拟为飞行或格斗训练显著,或它可以不同于现实,如在虚拟游戏中。在实践中,目前非常的困难,创造一个高度保真虚拟现实经验,主要由于处理能力的技术限制、图象解码和通讯带宽。然而,预计那些限制最终得到克服,如同处理器,图象与数据通讯技术变得更加强大并且划算的。
　　
　　虚拟现实通常是被用来描述各种类型的应用程序,通常联系在一起的引人入胜的、高度的视觉,3D环境。CAD软件的发展,图形硬件加速、头安装显示,数据库手套和小型化帮助推广这一观点。《形而上学》书中虚拟现实,迈克尔Heim识别7个不同的虚拟现实的概念:仿真、相互作用、人工,浸泡,觉临场感效果,全身浸、和网络通信。定义仍然有一定的未来派